You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you
were strangers in the land
of Egypt
Ancient Hebrew Law Passage,
otherwise known as Exodus 22:21-27
This passage is in the midst of one
of the earliest sections of law in the Bible. This three chapter law book is
placed right after the ten commandments.
Moses received it from God at the top of Mt. Sinai Israel
So
Moses was up on the mountain receiving God’s law alone.
Many
at this point might scoff at this story and the law it supports. After all, these wise scholars proclaim,
Hammarabi and other leaders of the Ancient Mediterranean and Mesopotamian
peoples had a story similar to Moses, and a law very similar. As is often the case with scholarship, these
mockers have seen the truth but missed the point. Of course the story was similar. If God was going to make his point, he had to
be telling a familiar story and then altering it. If I wanted to teach my children not to talk
to strangers, I might take the story of Little Red Riding Hood and change it
slightly to highlight the dangers of Red speaking to the wolf. It has been proven that a familiar story
shifted slightly for dramatic effect is a successful way of making a memorable
point. Neither “Thank God Almighty we’re free at last” nor “Ask what you can do
for your country” were originally penned by those we most associate them with.16
Even
so, there is a familiar story—the ruler going to the mountaintop to receive a
set of laws from a god—but it wasn’t originally intended to be this way. Before reverting back to that story, God
attempted to tell a different story. God
was to be king of his people directly, with no intermediary. He was to rule them with his own words,
without anyone needing to interpret them.
Thus he spoke the Ten Words to them with his own voice of thunder and
power. And then the people said (as Israel
God
was content with the situation. His
point was made. This law was not just
another king making up a “mountaintop” experience. It really was God speaking. And it was only the people’s desire that
placed a person between God and his nation.
The
law that was given is used somewhat in the same way. Laws such as these were familiar in the
ancient world. There were many laws
speaking of how to treat slaves, how to punish certain lawbreakers, and how to
judge in certain legal matters. But the
significance was not in the similarities—rather, it was the differences that
stood out clearly to the Israelites. And
this passage quoted above stood out to the Israelites more than most.
Nowhere
did the Hammurabi laws speak of those who were outside the law,
non-citizens. The laws of Hammurabi were
for the masters, the land-owners of his people.
Yes, it spoke of slaves and wives and of the land-owners’ responsibility
for them. But it didn’t speak of widows
or orphans who were not under the protection of a male land-owner. Nor did it speak of those so poverty-stricken
that they could not pay their debts. The
extreme debtors were stripped of their possessions—including their wives and
children—and thrown in prison until their relatives could pay the debt.
Strangers, otherwise known as immigrants or transients, were not citizens, and
were dependent on others for whatever they received. Whatever abuse these
people received was outside the law, for they were not the responsibility of
the land-owners.17
Yahweh,
the God of the Israelites, however, saw this situation differently. Yes, he certainly recognized that these
people—strangers, widows, orphans and debtors—were outside the law. And he also recognized that they were more
vulnerable to abuse and oppression than other peoples. These were people who could not receive
justice through the normal legal system established in the world.
But this didn’t mean that they were
SOL.18 Rather, Yahweh spoke
of these people because he wanted the rulers of his people to know that
although no judge would necessarily take the side of these vulnerable, marginal
people—He would. God is the Protector of
these people, and he is listening for their complaints. If God hears the complaints of the needy,
then He will pay attention and answer.
What
does it mean when God says he will respond to their cry? The Israelites knew the answer to this, for
in their national history, they know how God responds to the cries of the
needy. In the days of Abraham, the needy
cried out to God about an unjust city.
This city would take vulnerable travelers, who were looking for a safe
place to reside for an evening, and they would rape and kill them. This city’s name was Sodom Sodom
And
Israelites, Yahweh says, should remember to assist the stranger and the needy
more than others. After all, the nation
of Israel were immigrants
and needy in Egypt
15. The
Ancient Hebrew Canon is usually and inaccurately named the Old
Testament. Don’t be fooled by
titles! We usually base our first
impression of a work based on its title, but in ancient literature, the
titles didn’t exist until hundreds or even thousands of years after the
fact, and almost never reflect the original intent of the work. The ancient Hebrew writings are
certainly old—but relatively no older than the “new” testament-- and they
are antiquated, as no one follows them for what they say anymore. But they are not just a “testament”, or
a contract between an emperor and his servants, but the stories of how God
worked with his people. The ancient
message has more to do with God’s character and different methods of
working with humanity than a unified piece of commandment-and-promise.
16. The
MLK Jr. quote was originally an anonymous spiritual—as he stated. And the JFK quote was originally written
by Walt Whitman.
17. If you
want to read the Hammurabi laws—although I’m not sure why—you can find
them in your library in Ancient Near Eastern Texts by Pritchard.
18. To the
uninitiated: Shit Outta Luck.
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